Popped by to pick up the Phantom today and went to the Aston showroom while I was there. The Rapide doesn't really do anything for me in all honesty.

The rear is SUPER cramped, perhaps only a bit more spacious than the rear of a 6-series BMW. The rear doors are far too small and make for climbing out quite awkward. Makes me feel like I'm climbing into a Lotus, which is not a good thing on any luxury sedan.

The interior is quite obsolete and was lifted directly off the DB9. Aston could have done a lot better, felt like a rush job to me.

Then there is the price, $400,000 USD local prices which is almost double that of a Panamera Turbo.

On the exterior, its "ok" - not mindblowing for me either. As a result, I did not bother to take it on a test drive.

Panamera Turbo for me any day!

 

Wow I'm surprised about the rear passenger room. Sounds like you're describing a Mercedes Benz CLS550; rear seats aren't anywhere close to that of the Panny.

 

It's a shame they didn't make better room in the back of the Rapide. I guess that will be a turn-down for a lot of people. But, the Rapide does win in the exhaust note section over the panny turbo

 

I have seen Rapide in flesh and honestly speaking I am one of those who actually think that Rapide is a fail both inside and outside

 

In all honesty, I HIGHLY doubt there is enough demand for such a car, let alone the Lambo 4 door- to justify it's existance.

If you want a sedan; most will stick with more useable cars; S Class, 7 series, Panamera, etc. Asking someone to spend 200k on a sedan is, in this economy, foolish. Even the Flying Spur, while a cool car, doesn't get much action as compared to the Bentley GT.

People, emotionally, treat 4 doors, differently. And thus justification is *harder* for such a car. 75K? Sure. 115K? Sure. 150k? hmm. Okay...but $200k plus.... the bandwidth is much much narrower for appeal-sake.

 

it's a beautiful car no doubt about it but I can't justify its existance

 

Mike I like the 1-77

 

ding ding ding! ^^^ this.

 

Hahaha, I agree with you there entirely! That is a whole other degree of motor vehicle

It didn't impress me to be honest and I wish I looked more mindblown at the dealer, but it failed to stir any excitement for me period.

I think the rear seats are worse than in the CLS. In the CLS at least you had the whole rear "bench". The Rapide has that gi-normous centre console that extends throughout the car and crams up the space in the rear further more.

I was really pleasantly suprised at the amount of space Porsche was able to make for the rear of the Panamera. It doesn't feel clausterphobic at all and was very comfortable, which is the oppisite in the Rapide.

 

I saw quite a few in the UK - and I'm still undecided whether I like them or not.

While at the Montreal F1 this year, we saw a Rapide doing the rounds in traffic, it was turning heads.

Tiff seems to like it:
YouTube - Fifth Gear - Aston Martin Rapide